The overall food inflation, which includes ‘Food Articles’ from the Primary Articles group and ‘Food Product’ from the manufactured Products group, rose from 8.71 percent in March 2022 to 8.88 percent in April 2022.
WPI rose to a series high of 15.1 per cent in April on the back of hardening of food, metals and fuel prices.
“The heatwave led to a spike in prices of perishables such as fruits, vegetables and milk, which along with a spike in tea prices pushed up the primary food inflation,” Aditi Nayar, chief economist, , said.
“The WPI inflation accelerated to a fresh series high of 15.1% in April 2022, from 14.5% in March 2022, partly on account of the jump in fuel prices during the month, and exceeded our forecast of 14.3%. With some correction in commodity prices as a result of the bleaker demand outlook in China offsetting the depreciation in the INR, the WPI inflation may recede mildly below 15% in May 2022, while remaining uncomfortably elevated,” she added.
Retail food prices have also shot up even as the government acted to ban export of wheat amid falling state procurement. Retail inflation for the month of April surged to an eight-year high of 7.8 per cent.
Prices of edible oil and wheat shot up due to supply woes in the international market.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to go for further policy hikes in June after an out-of-policy hike of 40 basis points. The RBI takes the retail inflation into account for arriving at its monetary policy decisions.
